I'm Back!

It's been a while, but I'm back! Between workshops, setting up the classroom (with no AC), and getting my kids ready for school, I haven't been able to post much. Never fear! I have lots of wonderful ideas to share, so make sure you check out the classroom corral for activities and resources I will be using this year.

At our staff meeting on Monday, we had a really cute ice-breaker that my team decided to use with the class. The original activity used M&Ms, but since we're not allowed to give food to the students, we changed it to colored tiles, unifix cubes, centimeter squares, or other non-edible item. Each student receives a bag of colored tiles: 1 brown; 1 red; 1 orange; 1 blue; 1 yellow; and 1 green and the following instructions: 

"Open your bag and choose 3 colored tiles. Share the following information with your group based on the color of the tiles. If you have 2 or more of the same color, choose more tiles until you have 3 different colors.

Brown = How did you keep cool over the summer?

Orange = What was the best movie you saw this summer?

Red = What is the most interesting thing you did this summer?

Blue = What is one thing you will miss most about this summer?

Yellow = What is the best book you read this summer?

Green = What is one reason you are excited about coming back to school?" 

You can also have the instructions posted in one spot for everyone to read. The students always want to talk about what they did over the summer, and this lets them do just that. 

What are some of your ideas for sharing summer memories?